Razbam and MicroProse Partnership?

Flight Sims
21

They can try, but nothing in BMS Belongs to the new MP.
The original source code used to compile BMS doesn’t belong to the new MP.

outside of maybe Falcon name and Logo’s that are part of the copyright license the new MP Owns, which are easily removed, along with the requirement to having Falcon 4.0.

At this point maybe 20% of the original source code is prolly left and a majority of that is the Dynamic Campaign engine, which doesn’t belong to the new MP.

Nearly everything else has long since been replaced.

1 Like
22

For sure, which is why I put it up as the “like Ubisoft” test :+1:

1 Like
23

Wasn’t original Falcon 4 source code leaked though? And since MP owns Falcon 4 and BMS being built upon that leaked code I think MP could actually shut down the BMS if they wanted to. Of course that would angry all the fans and would be a massively negative PR hit for them but still.

TCA was initially developed outside of MP influence (I know its dev, beta-tested the game before it got EA release on Steam), they just grabbed it mid-development and published it. They wanted to do the same with Helicopter Gunship DEX but its dev - Jimmy Arcade declined. They did managed to get CAP2 though, which is good as it would be dead otherwise. Overall they only have handful of in-house projects (B-17 and Falcon5, maybe Gunship?) with plenty of other titles but only acting as publisher.

2 Likes
24

Yeah, this. :point_up_2:

1 Like
25

Falcon 4 Source code was property of the original MP, after the company was dissolved, the bank sold off licenses to publish and re-release most of the games,

The F4 Copyright license allowing one to sell and collect revenue for F4 has been passed around from publisher to publisher for the last 25 years.

The actual source code, among many other things, was never sold, and put into escrow to hold, business assets and IP in escrow have a life of ~70 years, but can be released to public domain by the escrow agency in the event that the property is no longer supported.

The Leak + the fact that F4 was released incomplete and faced public backlash and lack of patches, then a re-released under F4:AF Name, allowed the court to rule the F4 Source code be released from escrow holding.

Otherwise the dev(s) as much as the last interview leads one to believe, the source code leak was not a 1 man job, would have long sense had law suits filed against them.

the NEW MicroProse is not the Old MicroProse, just because they have the same name does not mean they Automatically own everything MP did, and they don’t automatically get ownership of anything in escrow holding either.

Case in point, the new MP has been buying up Copyrights for old MP Titles from whom ever has them, and doing mass advertising to drive sales.

Falcon’s source doesnt belong ot MP, they bought the Copyright and License to Sell Falcon back from Retroism, who bought it from Atari, who bought it from Hasbro, The source code provided to Atari by Hasbro was also incomplete, and thus F4:AF had features cut. This was also done before Bankruptcy proceedings put everything on sale or in escrow. Atari was brought on to make F4:AF after Hasbro Purchased MP and Moved the development to another team (Atari).

5 Likes
26

I’m aware that old MP =/= new MP, and obviously they don’t automatically own the old MP IPs - digital releases of F-19, F-117, Gunship 2000, Fleet Defender, Harrier Jump Jet, Dogfight, 1942 PAW and EAW are sold by Atari, while the new MP only has a few of the classics, like B-17 and Falcon games. Some of them like Strike Eagle series are nowhere to be seen interestingly. The Falcon 4 source code situation still has me baffled though - if it wasn’t owned by Atari (or whoever owned rights to Falcon at the time) how did Allied Force came to be (in legal terms)?

1 Like
27

F4AF was in development under Lead Pursuit. with graphsim being the publisher,

F4AF was built around an older codebase. Wether or not it was a completely recompiled project remains unknown,

Lead pursuit basically took the Gold Build Patched and modded it, changed the title and imahss and re released. this did not go over well with the community, BBS’s were ablaze when this happened, F4 Owners felt duped, into buying a new title that had parfs disabled and basically stole the community’s work.

28

LP kept active for a few years and then quietly went away. Their planned addons for F4AF, which they claimed Atari wanted because sales of AF were good, also disappeared.

29

Pretty sure they were caught taking community addons and integrating them into the sim, without permission or credits as well.

Also back on subject,

The MP Logo at RazBAM’s booth was covered up w/ GAFF tape

1 Like
30

So anyone learned anything from the show? I started to watch it but stopped because it seemed focused on mainstream gaming and I was only interested in simulation-related stuff.

31

i stopped because I had 3 hrs of high pitched rpg characters yelling in japanese… it made my ears ring. then you add the backgrand japtechno music that every game seemed to Have.

4 Likes
32

So this turned into a nothingburger? The countdown was just for the games show and no announcement was made?

2 Likes
33

Some people will do anything for attention. :grinning: :grinning: :grinning: I’m glad I didn’t stick around.

1 Like
34

Too true. And, flight sims to seem to turn otherwise normal middle aged men into quite the pack of gossip girls. I’m not so sure Zambrano would be wanting to jump ship. That is not a good professional look to abandon unfinished products like that.

I don’t think anyone at RB wants to do that.

Also, the only hardcore sim in Microprose’ stables that we know is on the docket is Falcon 5, but that’s REAL far off.

3 Likes
35

[quote=" MiG21bisFishbedL, post:34, topic:16659"]
Also, the only hardcore sim in Microprose’ stables that we know is on the docket is Falcon 5, but that’s REAL far off.
[/quote]

Sure,
but doing work for other sims doesn’t necessarely mean to abbandon their work for DCS.
Probably that will depend if they come to an agreement with ED (And I think that’s what everyone hopes).

1 Like
37

It is what everyone hopes.

Unfortunately it sounds like there are two people involved who really need to step back and let a resolution be negotiated, then just accept that and move forward. Sadly, we’re all human and that is very hard for us when we feel slighted…